In the 13 years that I have been competing, I have been given some great advice. Therefore, I wanted to nail down the single best nugget of wisdom and put it in a short article for you...but I can’t decide on only one. So, I decided that I would put together a series of short articles detailing some of the best advice I have ever received.

In my quest to be a better lifter I have asked a lot of questions, and I've sifted through a lot of information. I've disregarded a lot of what I have received because not everything works for everyone. However, I've held on to a lot as well. In the second installment in which I am sharing "Advice Through the Years", I wanted to pass on information I learned from Shawn Frankl.There is a lot of things about Frankl worth knowing, but for the purpose of this article, I’ll just tell you that he knows about lifting.

This is advice he gave me about pulling, more specifically, about locking out...

I was struggling with the last few inches of the pull—I just couldn't get my hips to push through to lock out. Unfortunately, because I was having trouble getting my hips pushed through to the bar to finish, I missed several third attempts and PRs. Thankfully though, that’s where Shawn’s advice comes in.

When asked what my focus was when trying to finish, I answered,  "to pull just a little more." What I meant was that I was trying to continually raise the bar with my lower back and quads (if there were any quads left to push with). I felt that if I could pull up more, I would eventually lock my hips. In other words, the farther the bar traveled, the more erect I would be. However, in my case, that way of thinking wasn’t helping. So, Shawn got me to think about my glutes and how they would help me push my hips through. He told me to focus on squeezing my glutes together. If you do it now, even if you're sitting, you will immediately see the benefit—your hips will move forward. Try it: clench your glutes and you will feel your hips move forward a few inches.

The majority of the time, a few inches from locking out is where I was failing. As I worked at this, I would have my guys yell it at me in the gym. "GLUTES! GLUTES! GLUTES!" And after a while, it stuck, and I was locking things out that I was missing at the top before.

You can practice it by using a high rack pull. Put the bar high enough—where you break the bar with your quads and back, and then immediately engage your glutes to lock it out. You will see the difference in no time.

Give it a try and good luck.